'Grossly offensive': Dad's sexually charged chats with kids

Ross Irby
Reporter
Reporter Ross Irby has wander-lust mixed with a sense of adventure, spending way too many years roaming about Australia, its back roads and off-shore foreign lands.
Enjoys a yarn, story telling and tales, along with curiosity to find out about the lives and (mis)adventures of others.
An off-beat sense of humour, not taking it all too seriously, along with big doses of flexibility/adaptability whatever the situation is the best way to go.
You have to have the life experiences to have empathy...

A DAD of eight has been jailed after he chatted to three children online seeking them to perform sexual acts. The conversations were sexually charged and involved his fantasies.

An Ipswich judge called them "grossly offensive crimes".

When the Federal Police raided Andrew William Bambrick's Redbank Plains home, they discovered hundreds of images of child pornography and videos he'd downloaded from the internet.

But Bambrick was also helpful to the Commonwealth investigation. He gave the officers his computer passwords to access the offensive material.

Bambrick, 48, pleaded guilty to possession of child exploitation material; using the internet to access child pornography; and two counts of using the internet to transmit indecent communication to a person under 16.

In the Federal Crown prosecution case, his offences took place between September 2012 and September 2016. And the investigation unearthed 1499 child exploitation images and 15 videos.

The images covered all six categories of child pornography offences.

Communications found on his Yahoo Messenger account revealed Bambrick had also chatted to three children aged 14 and 13.

The prosecution sought for Bambrick to serve actual jail time, citing the need for protection of vulnerable children.

The Crown accepted he had co-operated with police and made frank admissions, but he was aware of the ages of the children.

Defence barrister Tim Ryan said Bambrick made telling admissions and accepted full responsibility for the material on his devices.

It was not suggested he had transmitted the images to the children.

Mr Ryan said most of the images fell in the lower end of the offence category.

The professional and educated man grew up in Rockhampton. Mr Ryan said his conduct was "an aberration" of an otherwise blameless life. He has the support of his wife and is getting psychological counselling.

Judge Alexander Horneman-Wren SC said Bambrick told his psychologist he believed he'd been communicating to an adult and that the online conversations reflected "role playing".

"The communications (with the children) were sexually laden and quite disgusting," he said. "These are not victimless crimes. Every child exploited in pornographic material is a victim.

"I have seen the sealed images. It is quite offensive material. They are grossly offensive crimes."

Judge Horneman-Wren sentenced Bambrick to 18 months' jail, and to lesser (concurrent) terms, along with probation.

After serving four months, his sentence will be suspended for two years with Bambrick put on a two-year good behaviour bond.